District Systems to Support Equitable and High-Quality Teaching and Learning
Category: Policy, Politics, and Governance
Despite growing attention to school boards, it is unclear whether they primarily operate as bureaucratic forums, policy-making bodies, or arenas for contentious debate—particularly on issues of race. Recent controversies suggest increasing public engagement and conflict, but little evidence documents how often questions of race arise in board deliberations. This study analyzes over 40,000 meeting minutes from 2018–2022 to examine the prevalence, framing, and drivers of race-related discourse. Using large language models, natural language processing, and human coding, we find that race-related conversations are relatively uncommon but responsive to national events, particularly in politically competitive, suburban districts. Our analysis highlights the variable nature of local governance and the value of meeting minutes and computational tools for understanding this variability.
Education level
Document Object Identifier (DOI)
10.26300/ew42-t954
